have a similar effect with good diet and care upon a sick man, they might mitigate the disorder, but the body politic could never again be brought to a good habit while property remained; and it will happen, as in a complication of disorders, that, applying a remedy to one part, you will do harm elsewhere.'

On the contrary,' answered I, it appeareth to me that men cannot live conveniently where all things are in common. How can there be any plenty where every man excuseth himself from labour? For the hope of gain exciteth him not, and his confidence in the industry of others may make him slothful. If men be pinched by want, yet cannot dispose of any thing as their own, what can follow but sedition and bloodshed, especially when the authority of magistrates is wanting, for I see not how that can exist among these equals.'

• I do not wonder," he replied, that it appeareth so to you, since you have no notion, or at least no just one, of such a constitution. But had you been in Utopia with me and seen her laws and regulations as I did for five years, (during which I was so delighted with the place, that I should never have left it, but to make the discovery of that new world to Europeans), you would confess that you had never seen a people so well constituted.'

6

You will not easily persuade me,' said Peter, that any country in that new world is better governed than those

among us. For our understandings are not inferior to theirs, and our government being more ancient (if I mistake not), long practice hath holpen us to many conveniencies of life, and happy casualties have discovered other things which no human understanding could ever have invented.'

As for the antiquity of either their government or ours,' said he, you cannot form a true judgment of it unless you had read their histories; for if these be entitled to credit, they had towns among them, before these parts had inhabitants. And as for those discoveries which chance or ingenuity hath made, they might have happened there as well as here. I deny not that we are more ingenious, but they greatly excel us in industry and application. They knew little of us before our arrival among them, and they call us, in general, the nations lying beyond the equinoctial.

Their chronicle recordeth a shipwreck which happened on their coast twelve hundred years ago, and some Romans and Egyptians reaching the shore, spent their lives among them. Their ingenuity was such, that they acquired from these men, as far as they knew them, all the useful arts then common among the Romans; and from their hints they found out more of those arts, less ably explained to them. But hath such an accident at any time brought any of them into Europe, we, so far from improving, do not even retain the memory of it; as hereafter it will probably

be forgotten that I was ever there. And this is the true cause why they are better governed and live happier than we do, though we fall not short of them in understanding or external advantages.'

On this, I said to him, I beg you will describe that island very particularly to us; that is, her soil, rivers, towns, people, manners, constitution, laws, and, in a word, all that you think will interest us; and you will easily conceive we have much curiosity about a people so new to us.'

'I willingly comply,' he answered, for I have digested the matter with care, but the relation will take up some time.'

Let us go and dine then,' said I,' after which we shall have leisure enough.'

He consented, we went to dinner, and afterward returned to the same place. I ordered my servants to take care that we were not interrupted, and Peter and I desired Raphael to perform his promise.

Observing our attention, after a little recollection, he began thus

END OF BOOK I.

UTOPIA.

BOOK II.

THE island of Utopia is 200 miles broad in the middle, and over a great part of it, but grows narrower at either end. The figure of it is not unlike a crescent. Eleven miles breadth of sea washeth its horns and formeth a considerable bay, encompassed by a shore about 500 miles in extent, and well sheltered from storms. In the bay is no great current. The whole coast is as it were a continued harbour, affording the whole island every advantage of mutual intercourse. Yet the entrance into the bay, owing to rocks and shoals, is very dangerous.

In the middle is a rock which appeareth above water, on whose top is a tower inhabited by a garrison. The other

rocks lie under water, and are very dangerous. The channel is known only by the natives, and a stranger entering the bay without one of their pilots would be in imminent danger of shipwreck. Themselves could not pass it in safety, without certain marks on the coast to direct their way. And if these were a little altered, any fleet coming against them, however large, would certainly be lost. On the other side of the island are likewise many harbours; and the coast is so fortified by nature as well as art, that a small force could hinder the descent of a large army.

Report saith (and marks of its credibility remain) that this island was originally a part of the continent. Utopus, the conqueror of it, and whose name it now bears (having previously been called Abraxa), brought the government and civility of the rude inhabitants to their present highly improved state. Having easily subdued them, he formed the design of separating them from the continent and encompassing them with the sea. To this end, he ordered a deep channel to be dug 15 miles long; and that the natives might not think he treated them like slaves, he not only obliged them, but also his own soldiers to labour at the work. From the number of hands employed, it was finished with dispatch exceeding every man's expectation; and his neighbours, who at first laughed at the folly of the undertaking, when they saw it accomplished, were struck with admiration and terror.

There are 54 cities in the island, all of them large and